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Code Enforcement, Land Use and Zoning Litigation

Leone & Alberts advises and represents a number of municipalities in code enforcement matters. Our attorneys who handle such matters understand the interplay between the due process rights of the various affected property owners, the city’s administrative procedures and the resulting steps necessary to enforce the city’s codes against violators.

Our municipal clients have called upon us to handle code enforcement litigation at the trial court level including writ defense and injunctive relief actions. Moreover, we have advised clients in regards to municipal code interpretation and revision, code violations, and administrative procedures.

We have defended cities in a number of writ actions before the superior courts, including a current ongoing action involving one city’s efforts to remove a nonconforming commercial use in a residential district. This consolidated action involves not only the city’s complaint for injunctive relief and the property owner’s and lessor’s petitions for writs of administrative mandate, but also cross-complaints and complaints by the owner and lessor alleging regulatory taking, estoppel, and violations of the Brown Act and Public Records Act.

In January 2014, the Superior Court adopted our arguments in opposition to the petitions for writ of administrative mandate and denied the petitions on multiple grounds. We are now in the process of extensive motion practice to resolve the remaining issues in the case and obtain an injunction to shut down the nonconforming use.